Blurred lines obliterate primitive weapons arguments

Using straight wall rifle cartridges in single-shot rifles during muzzleloading deer season is appropriate for this time.

That is one of a few somewhat controversial regulation changes that the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission has proposed for the 2025 hunting season.

Some hunters oppose it, not because anybody believes that straight wall cartridges might be detrimental to deer herds, but because the concept offends traditional values. A metallic cartridge in a single-shot, breechloading rifle is a modern firearm. It shouldn’t be allowed in a primitive weapons season.

How do we define primitive? A breech-loading, single-shot centerfire rifle is more modern than a sidelock rifle, but it’s primitive compared to a semiautomatic rifle or even modern bolt-action setups with rangefinding optics that enable you to hit a target the size of a deer kill zone at 500-700 yards.

Some critics oppose the proposal because they believe that straightwall metallic cartridges give hunters too much of an advantage.

Curiously, the same people oppose another proposal that will allow hunters to take deer with spears. You can’t get more primitive than that, but even there, the lines are blurred. Modern spears are made of metal, with a machined metal cutting edge. Traditionalists would argue that a truly primitive spear should be made of wood and have a knapped stone head.

Besides that, there’s an image issue. Killing deer with spears is just too primitive. Enlightened people don’t do that. You and your spouse will be ostracized at the wine and brie party if anyone finds out.

I disagree with that. The other guests would be morbidly enthralled.

How did we get here? It’s actually a resounding success story.

In the decades when states were rebuilding their deer herds from near extinction, deer hunting opportunities were lean. Modern gun seasons lasted about nine days, and bag limits were small.

States added a muzzleloader season when the herds grew large enough to sustain a small amount of additional hunting pressure.

Initially, muzzleloading rifles and shotguns were such a small niche market that you had to build them from kits. They were sidelock models that ignited powder with No. 11 percussion caps. This affronted traditionalists that believed that percussion cap rifles were “modern” firearms. They believed that muzzleloader season should be limited to guns that ignited powder with a flint. The late Cliff Shelby of Flippin, one of Arkansas’s great outdoor writers, argued that point in the mid-1990s in “Southern Outdoors” magazine.

Eventually, hunting with muzzleloaders got popular enough for companies to mass producing muzzleloading rifles. The inline muzzleloader came quickly, followed by improved versions that ignite powder with shotgun primers arrived.

Six states still prohibit inline muzzleloaders. California, the bellwether for all things cultural, is not among them.

Propellants evolved, too. Blackpowder substitutes like Blackhorn 209, Triple Seven and White Hots are essentially smokeless powder with an additive that makes them smoke.

For a short time, Savage made a rifle that really did use smokeless powder. Remington’s Long Range Muzzleloader uses metallic cylinders that you load yourself.

Connecticut Valley Arms made a battery-powered model called Electra. Instead of a primer, it has electrodes that produce an electrical arc when you pull the trigger.

Nothing about any of these firearms is primitive except that they must be loaded through the muzzle.

Mostly, allowing straightwall rifle cartridges in muzzleloader season is an attempt to inject some new enthusiasm into the sport and boost participation. The lines between primitive and modern are so indistinct now that there is no fair place to draw a line.

Except in rare circumstances, deer run away at the sound of a gunshot. Seldom will a hunter be able to reload a metallic cartridge into a breechloading rifle in time to shoot at another deer.

That hunter will also not experience the malfunctions that are endemic to muzzleloaders.

On every level including fairness and fair chase, the use of straightwall metallics during muzzleloader season will have neutral impact.